


chasing butterflies

by nekrateholic



Category: GOT7, Highlight | Beast (Band), NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 12:02:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7532032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekrateholic/pseuds/nekrateholic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hyunseung steals a rose when he leaves and it ends up attempting to eat Jonghyun's husband alive. Sort of. Epic adventures ensue. Also, Bambam is a pain in the ass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	chasing butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> there's a few other couples here, but basically everything that is not jren or whatever hyunseung and junhyung's ship name is, gets very little attention, so
> 
> uhm. well. i saw the mv for 'butterfly' and it reminded me of goodbye bye (and then later sayonara hitori too and i just had to stuff it in there somehow). somehow this happened. i like blue flowers, ok?

‘Hey,’ Kikwang says, voice barely above a whisper. Yoseob doesn’t answer, just keeps checking and re-checking each and every one of his flowers. He’s currently buried his head in a rosebush. He looks nervous, frantic almost and the sleeves of his robes keep catching onto the thorns. It’s puzzling to watch – Yoseob is usually so careful with his roses, you can’t even tell he spends most of his time handling them and their scary thorns. Kikwang clears his throat and tries again, higher this time and Yoseob finally snaps back with a ‘What?’

He seems to gather himself then, maybe out of guilt or maybe it was something on Kikwang’s face, but the ‘what’ is followed by a, ‘Sorry. Sorry, just… there’s something wrong with them.’ he gestures to the flowers all around them and adds, his voice grim, ‘And I can’t figure out what.’

‘Maybe they are restless because we keep cutting them to make bouquets for Junhyung? He still hasn’t left that bench, by the way.’

‘No, no,’ Yoseob shakes his head and frowns. ‘They understand he’s grieving, they are fine with that. For now, at least. It’s something else and it makes my head ache and my skin itch.’

‘He ruined a lot of things when he left, didn’t he.’ This time Kikwang’s voice is quieter even than his initial ‘hey’, but Yoseob still picks up on it. He tries for a smile that ends up just short of a grimace and intertwines their fingers for a brief second before going back to the roses. Kikwang sighs. He sits just outside the garden, under a tree that looks a lot like the Tree and resigns himself to watching Yoseob fretting over his flowers. A butterfly flies past him and circles him for a while before it lands on his shoulder. It startles and flies away when he shuffles to get comfortable, but returns as soon as Kikwang is still again. He watches it for a while. He’s not exactly sure what to do about them, none of them are, and the butterflies have been restless, not used to the absence of their guardian. They’ve been trying to split the care for the butterflies between the five of them but it’s still weird for all of them.

Kikwang sighs and lets Yoseob’s constant rustling lull him into a nap. At least that’s better than third-wheeling on Doojoon and Dongwoon comforting each other, or, God forbid, going to Junhyung.

*

Jonghyun sneaks behind Minki while he cooks the chicken they lifted off the butcher that morning. He slips his cold hands around Minki’s eyes and the boy splutters before whirling around and landing a loud slap on Jonghyun’s cheek.

‘Do you actually want to give me a heart attack?!’ Minki screeches. Jonghyun would laugh except Minki’s not-slapping hand is waving a very sharp knife threateningly in his direction. Jonghyun retreats a few steps.

‘I just wanted to surprise you,’ he starts, and before Minki can interrupt with more screeches about how he hates surprises and Jonghyun’s hands when they’re cold, Jonghyun produces the rose that’s been carefully tucked in his belt for a little over two hours now. Minki’s jaw drops and Jonghyun bites back a smirk. ‘I knew I had to have it the moment the weird dude took it out of his bag. It’s almost as pretty as you.’ 

Minki blushes and slaps his chest, muttering ‘cheeseball’ under his breath, but now the knife is lying safely on the countertop behind him and Jonghyun allows himself a chuckle. Minki takes the rose from him and carefully examines it. It’s beautiful – it’s a bright, bright blue, the kind that can only mean magic. That theory is further proved by the fact it’s been almost two hours since he stole it and who knows how many more since it was cut and the rose still looked as though it was blooming on its bush. Minki smiles up at him, blush still high on his cheeks, tucks the rose behind his ear and goes back to his cooking.

Jonghyun could still see him smiling though.

*

‘I found it!’

Kikwang startles awake. When did he fall asleep anyway? Yoseob is shaking him violently, his face terrified now and Kikwang has to blink a few times to get himself awake enough to process what he’s saying. ‘What?’

‘I found it,’ he repeats, shaking him some more. ‘I found what’s wrong with my flowers.’ Yoseob pauses, then continues in a whisper, eyes full of disbelief and pure terror. ‘It’s missing. One of them is missing. One of the roses. I didn’t notice at first because of all the flowers we’ve sacrificed for Junhyung but this one isn’t simply misplaced or cut, it’s _missing_.’ He buries his head in Kikwang’s neck, not shaking him anymore and trembling instead. Kikwang wraps his hands around him without thinking and Yoseob sniffles, then continues whispering against Kikwang’s neck. ‘How did I not notice sooner? Oh Lord, what if- what if it ends up in the _human world_.’

Kikwang can feel the terror in Yoseob’s eyes slowly transfer to him too, but he rubs comforting circles on Yoseob’s back anyway. He wants to ask him if he’s sure, not because he doubts Yoseob, but because the thought of a rose somewhere amongst the humans is. Not good. He doesn’t ask. Instead, he tries to think about it and- ‘The last person that left is-’ He squeezes Yoseob tighter but it proves pointless – Yoseob is already tensing in his arms, moving up, away, and now that Kikwang can see his eyes again there’s no fear in them. Instead, there’s anger.

‘The little piece of shit! It wasn’t enough he hurt us, _broke_ Junhyung, he had to go and steal one of my roses too. I can’t believe it.’ The flowers around them tremble on their stems, even though there’s no breeze. Yoseob is fuming and Kikwang has to squeeze his wrist tight, possibly bruising it, to ground him before the situation gets any worse. Yoseob shuts his eyes, breathes in deep, keeps it for a while and then exhales, slowly opening his eyes again with a determined expression.

‘We have to talk to the others.’

*

Jonghyun gets up first, for a change. He fully plans on rubbing it in Minki’s face whenever he decides to grace the world of living with his presence. Jonghyun might also indulge in a little teasing about the way Minki fell asleep with the rose clutched to his chest. Teasing from a safe distance, of course, because Minki somehow always, at any given time and place manages to produce a possibly deadly weapon in the form of kitchenware. It’s a scary talent.

Jonghyun fixes breakfast, fully intent on waking up Minki and bringing the breakfast to bed, when the door to their bedroom slams open, followed by the sound of footsteps, and the door to the bathroom slamming open as well. Jonghyun decides fuck breakfast, because Minki sounds urgent and Minki is never, ever urgent first thing in the morning. Worry wells up in him as he hurries towards the bathroom, trying to convince himself he’s overreacting. It all flies out of the window, however, when he sees Minki doubled over the toilet bowl, retching.

It takes Jonghyun exactly five seconds to cross the small bathroom and reach Minki, but those five seconds are a second too long, apparently, because the next thing he sees is Minki slumped against the bathroom wall, eyes wide and unseeing, the goddamned rose sticking out of his mouth.

*

‘Hyunseung took one of my roses when he left.’

Yoseob doesn’t beat around the bush, doesn’t try to lessen the impact of Hyunseung’s name on Junhyung. Junhyung, who they somehow managed to drag away from the bench and the million bouquets and scattered roses around it. To his credit, his only reaction to the news is a sharp inhale. Doojoon and Dongwoon just stare at Yoseob.

‘Do we know why?’ Dongwoon asks quietly and they all look at Junhyung. Junhyung shakes his head.

‘It doesn’t matter why.’ Yoseob says, the determination clear in his voice. ‘What matters, is that one of my roses, most likely not properly contained, is on the loose in the human world. It will try to charm any and everything non-magical thing there, and as we all know, there is plenty of that in the human world.’ Yoseob’s voice is getting progressively higher and Kikwang eyes him warily. ‘The roses are among the most powerful of my flowers. It will run out of energy really fast and when that happens it will look for alternate sources and _who knows what will happen._ ’ Yoseob closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, then continues significantly calmer. ‘We have to find it. Which means we have to finds Hyunseung.’

There’s an eerie silence for a few moments. Then, Junhyung says,

‘No.’

‘What do you mean, _no_?!’ Yoseob is screeching now, and Kikwang catches his wrist and grips it as tight as he can. Yoseob’s breathing slows a bit, but he still glares daggers at Junhyung. ‘I know you’re grieving, I know you two were special, but we lost him too, you know? This is hard for all of us. But my rose is missing, Junhyung, and I’d really like to think you’re not stupid enough to underestimate the power of anything that comes out of this realm.’ Junhyung’s eyes harden with each of Yoseob’s words, but he is relentless, ‘What I mean is, it’s time for you, for all of us, to get our shit together, find the bastard and the fucking rose.’ He pauses to take a deep breath, and his voice is a lot quieter when he continues, ‘Maybe find some answers while we’re at it.’

*

Jonghyun is pretty sure there’s going to be a hole on the floor soon with the way he’s been pacing nonstop since the second Minhyun showed up at his doorstep. Some part of him rebels against the fact that Minhyun is just an apprentice, not an actual doctor, but the rest of him, the rational part of his brain knows that even as an apprentice, Minhyun is just as good as Dr Kwak. In fact, due to his magical parentage, Minhyun is the better choice in this case. All of this is really irrelevant, but if Jonghyun stops thinking whether Minhyun is a good doctor or not, he’ll start thinking of Minki’s unseeing eyes, wide open and terrified, and the rose. He tried to take it out of his mouth, he did, but Minki’s entire body had convulsed so hard he was afraid he’d break him. So, the rose stayed.

Minhyun comes out of the bedroom sometime later, his expression unreadable. Jonghyun steels himself, preparing for what exactly, he doesn’t know.

‘The rose is your problem, as you’ve probably figured by now.’ Minhyun frowns a little, before he schools his expression back to blankness. ‘It’s magical and I can’t take it out, it bonded with his body somehow and it will take someone with far greater abilities than mine to remove it.’

Jonghyun shuts his eyes, grits his teeth, asks ‘Is it hurting him?’

‘No,’ Jonghyun doesn’t even have time to sigh in some sort of relief, before Minhyun continues, ‘Not… exactly. It eats away at his energy, though I doubt it’s with malicious intent. I think it’s just trying to recharge itself. Minki happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

‘Great.’ Jonghyun mutters, voice dripping of sarcasm. ‘I decide to get the love of my life a flower and it turns out to be a life-eating one. Great. Of course.’

Minhyun gives him a Very Judgmental Look.

‘This is not something you’d find at a regular flower shop, Jonghyun. I’m pretty sure you can’t find it in the magical ones, either.’ Minhyun pauses in favor of more judgmental staring, before he continues. ‘You better go and find the person you stole it from and bring him here. While Minki is not in immediate danger, his life force isn’t infinite.’

Minhyun’s tone is final, brooking no argument and Jonghyun quietly bangs his head against the wall a few times. He vows to never ever steal odd looking things from weird foreigners again.

*

‘I think Yoseob and Junhyung should be the ones who go.’ Doojoon says, in his most authoritative voice. If they had a leader it would probably be him – he is the most level-headed out of all of them, and is arguably the one with the most responsibility. Time is a heavy thing to guard, after all.

‘Why? Wouldn’t it be easier if more of us went? I could create passageways to travel faster. Besides,’ Kikwang continues quieter, ‘I’d keep Yoseob balanced.’

Doojoon sighs. ‘Yeah, I know that. But this way you’re locking us in here, and besides, this realm needs all of us to survive and we’re already man down. To be honest, I want to let Junhyung alone, but I doubt he’d be able to handle Yoseob’s flower accurately.’ Junhyung huffs indignantly at that, but doesn’t argue. They all know Doojoon’s right. ‘Me, Dongwoon and Kikwang are going to watch over you from Dongwoon’s mirrors, intervene if necessary. It would probably be better if you take a few of Hyunseung’s butterflies with you, they might still be able to follow his energy.’ Doojoon heaves another sigh. ‘There is no reason for us to drag this out. You leave in two hours.’

They all nod, and Junhyung immediately excuses himself, hopefully to gather things necessary for their mission. Doojoon and Dongwoon stay at the Tree and Yoseob heads to his gardens. Kikwang follows him quietly. He keeps quiet when Yoseob carefully goes among the flowers, even more carefully plucks a few of them out and stashes them in a bag. Kikwang keeps quiet when Yoseob climbs in his lap, too, and when he feels his shirt getting wet where Yoseob’s face is pressed against it, Kikwang wraps his arms around him.

‘I don’t want this,’ he mutters, ‘I don’t want any of this, I don’t want to go to the human world, I don’t want to go without you, I don’t want to have to cut my flowers for Junhyung and I don’t want to have to find Hyunseung, I want him here, like before. I just want to go back.’

‘I know, baby. I know.’

*

Jonghyun packs some food, and water, and alcohol (for health reasons!), fetches his warmest coat and sets off. He makes Minhyun swear on his never-ending apprenticeship that he’ll check on Minki at least twice a day while he’s gone.

He doesn’t kiss Minki’s unmoving form goodbye, because that would equal him accepting the possibility of failure. Failure is not acceptable.

His first stop, of course, is the inn he found the guy he stole the rose from. He reaches it when it’s almost nightfall. It’s outside his usual hunting zone, far enough that people shouldn’t immediately eye him warily. Still, what is probably the owner stops mid sentence when Jonghyun enters, then offers him a stiff smile. The inn isn’t full by any means – there’s only a few people scattered around the tables. Each and every one of them is currently silent and staring at Jonghyun. Now that he’s visiting outside the rush hours, he curses himself for not noticing earlier – this place is apparently run by magical creatures. Three of them have this white and grey and copper red in their hair and there’s no way that are natural colors on guys seemingly in their twenties. That doesn’t exactly give away what kind of creatures they are, though.

He returns the owner’s stiff smile and shakes the snow off his coat, before he hangs it by the door.

‘How can I help you?’ The owner says and his tone is a lot lighter than his eyes. His hair is blindingly white and it looks a lot like the snow Jonghyun just shook off his coat.

He decides, fuck it, because it’s likely he can’t say anything that would successfully deceive any of these probably-not-people. ‘I was here yesterday noon.’ The owner nods. ‘I stole something from one of your customers and it backfired really bad. I was hoping you could help me find him, so he can get it back and hopefully not kill my husband in the process?’

White-haired guy considers him for a moment.

‘He’s sincere, Jackson. I can smell the worry on him. I’m sure you all can, too.’ The grey haired-boy says from one of the tables. Jonghyun could feel each pair of eyes in the room move from him to the boy who spoke up.

‘Well,’ the Jackson guy says after a while, ‘I suppose he would’ve gone looking for you at some point anyway. Hey, Youngjae, you talked to him, didn’t you?’

‘Yeah,’ a guy by the fireplace says. His hair is a regular dark brown and Jonghyun wonders if he’s magical too. ‘He wanted to know if there are Guardians somewhere near. I have no idea, so I sent him to Bambam.’

Jackson hums. ‘Bambam’s place is half a day’s walk up the road you came from. You should spend the night here, though. The roads are dangerous at night around here. Youngjae will show you the way first thing tomorrow.’ Jonghyun is about to protest because time is really of the essence here, but Jackson’s eyes flash a clear, bright red. ‘You’re staying the night.’ And then he goes on, almost cheerful, ‘You won’t be any good to your husband if something happens to you, man.’

Great, Jonghyun thinks, as he takes his bag and follows Jackson up the stairs, Minki’s life is being sucked away by a magical rose and here he is, going to sleep in a shady inn under thinly veiled threats from unknown magical creatures. Fuck magic, really.

*

The best Kikwang can help them with right now is create a passageway to the place where Hyunseung landed in the human world. They are in some sort of forest and there doesn’t seem to be any signs of people nearby. The three butterflies they took with them take residence in Junhyung’s hair and Yoseob laughs quietly at him. Judging by Junhyung’s death glare it wasn’t _that_ quiet. He carefully takes the butterflies out one by one and places them in his bag.

‘What do we do now, Mr. Travel Guardian-man,’ Yoseob says mockingly, looking around. There are faint glowing threads weaving everywhere around them but Yoseob can’t, for the life of him, discern how old are they, what creature’s energy left them, anything. He’s completely and utterly lost. Junhyung, though. He takes a careful look around, touching some of the threads, lightly pulling others, until he apparently finds the one he’s looking for and starts walking ahead without so much as a grunt in Yoseob’s direction. Yoseob grits his teeth and follows him.

‘Look,’ he starts, once he’s caught up. Junhyung doesn’t say anything. ‘I’m just as excited as you are about being here. About doing what… we’re doing. But we have to work together, okay?’

‘Work together,’ Junhyung snorts. It doesn’t sound even remotely funny. ‘You heard what Doojoon said, you’re only here because I can’t handle your flowers. Let’s just find him, find the damn rose and get this over with.’

Yoseob closes his eyes for a second, trying to think about Kikwang’s smile, Kikwang’s grip on his hands, Kikwang’s general calming presence. Anything to keep him from strangling Junhyung before their mission even started.

*

Jonghyun finds himself in front of a huge house just off the road. It’s exactly where Youngjae said it would be, and it’s eerily quiet. The snow crunches under his boots when he walks to the front door, but his knock doesn’t make a sound. Jonghyun knocks again, just to make sure and for the umpteenth time curses the moment he decided to steal the stupid rose. He hates dealing with magical creatures, even when the lives of his loved ones don’t depend on it.

The door opens to reveal a very inappropriately dressed for the weather lady. Her dress’ cleavage is so wide that it’s basically nonexistent on her shoulders. It’s midnight blue, and if he was a few years younger, Jonghyun would probably blush bright red at the visible swell of her breasts. She smirks at him.

‘Well hi there, honey. My name is Sihyun. What brings you to our lovely establishment?’

‘I, uh.’ Jonghyun curses himself for stuttering, but the lady, Sihyun, is currently giving him a very deliberate once over and it’s… slightly uncomfortable. A brothel. Of course this Bambam lives in a brothel. A magical brothel. Jonghyun hates his life a little bit right now. ‘Uh. I’m looking for Bambam?’

Her face falls immediately and she slams the door all the way open. ‘Bambam!’ She yells, walking back in, not even bothering with a second glance at Jonghyun. ‘There’s another one for you!’ Jonghyun thinks he can hear something along the lines of ‘lucky bastard’, but Sihyun is already too far for him to be sure.

Jonghyun just stands there, unsure of what to do. After a while he decides that if they were going to throw him out Sihyun would’ve already done it, so he steps inside and carefully closes the door behind him. There’s a huge staircase directly in front of him, and after a while a tall, slim guy descends it. He, at least, is a bit more winter-appropriate dressed. His hair is swiped to the side, sticking up, his eyes are lined with black and his coat is bright red, seams lined with shiny gems. He kind of reminds Jonghyun of a pirate he once met. Under all the shiny appearance, though, he looks terribly young. Looks being the key word, because the sultry look he gives Jonghyun has nothing young about it.

He crowds Jonghyun against the closed door right away and before his lip could latch against Jonghyun’s, Jonghyun lightly shoves at his shoulder. ‘Thanks but, no thanks, um, I am looking for Bambam?’

The guy takes a step back and the sultry expression quickly morphs into a calculating one. The irises slowly fade out of his eyes too, along with his pupils, until all that’s left is endless white. It’s incredibly creepy. ‘I am Bambam. And you are not at all affected.’ It’s not a question, but Jonghyun nods anyway. ‘And you turned down lovely Sihyun earlier, too. But you don’t seem magical. Interesting.’ Bambam seems to be talking to himself more than to Jonghyun, so Jonghyun waits for him to finish. ‘Well,’ Bambam finally says, bright and cheerful, looking at Jonghyun, finally. ‘What brings you here…?’

‘Jonghyun.’

‘Yes, okay, Jonghyun. What brings you here, pretty Jonghyun?’

‘I was sent by a guy named Youngjae?’ Bambam’s eyes narrow, ‘He said he sent another guy to you yesterday, and, see, I really need to find him because I stole something from him and I need to find him so he can have it back because it’s quite literally eating my husband alive as we speak.’

Bambam tilts his head. ‘I can help you. I know where Hyunseung went, but unlike him, you have nothing useful to offer me in exchange for my help. What you can do is do me a favor.’ And this is where he decides on a final fuck it, because apparently his life has turned into the fairytales his mom used to tell him before bed. He follows Bambam, who is currently striding deeper into the house, passing by half-naked men and women without so much as a second glance at them. Jonghyun sees Sihyun lounging on an armchair with another girl in her lap, and she winks at him.

‘So,’ Bambam starts, rummaging through various cupboards in what is probably the kitchen. ‘There is this storm witch that lives at the bottom of a lake deep in the forest. His name is Yugyeom and he’s been a pain in my ass ever since I moved to this part of the country.’

Jonghyun is confused. ‘Wait, if it’s a he, doesn’t that make him a wizard? Not a witch?’ Bambam gives him a death glare, and, Jonghyun has to be honest here, with his irisless eyes, it’s pretty terrifying. He shuts his mouth so fast his jaws clatter and Bambam smirks.

‘Now, I suppose you can’t breathe underwater?’ Jonghyun nods, ‘Yes, of course, fragile humanity and shit. Oh, here it is.’ He takes out a shiny glass jar out of one of the cupboards and Bambam walks out of the possibly-kitchen, again not even waiting for Jonghyun to follow him. They go up the giant staircase this time, into a large library that has… an aquarium filled with tiny blue fish. Bambam fills the jar with water, takes a fish out and carefully puts it inside before he fastens the lid on. ‘Since you can’t breathe underwater and it’s sort of required, because, you know, Yugyeom lives at the bottom of a lake, here you are. When you reach the lake, take the fish out, eat it, and you’ll be able to breathe underwater for as long as you’re there. Once you resurface it stops working. So, you have only one chance. And the jar is charmed too, so it won’t break or open unless you want it to.’

Jonghyun is slightly confused. ‘I have to… eat the fish? Like, alive? And raw?’

‘No, you have to make a campfire and cook it,’ Bambam rolls his eyes. Jonghyun could have spent his entire life not knowing how an irisless eyeroll looked like, ‘Of course you eat it alive, you dumbass. That’s how magic works. Now, to the point. What I want from you is take the marbles he keeps in a box under his work table. For your own sake, avoid confrontation at all costs. He’s known to be very… violent towards trespassers. The worst, really. He’ll probably eat you, or cook your body parts for one of his potions, or something. He must not be alerted of your presence.’

Great. ‘I suppose if he does catch me I’ve never met you and have nothing to do with you?’

‘Oh,’ Bambam smirks, ‘Oh no. If he catches you, you tell him all about me.’

And with that, Jonghyun finds himself out the door with vague directions towards the lake and a jar with a fish he’s supposed to eat alive, on his way to a wizard’s place he might or might not get out alive from.

Great. Just great.

*

They reach an inn about three hours later. It seems like three hours, but Yoseob can’t really be sure because the sun was hard to pinpoint exactly in the forest, and time in their realm was different, anyway.

‘His trail ends here,’ Junhyung says. ‘He changed his thread here, somehow. I can’t follow him through threads now, so we have to go the old fashioned way.’

Yoseob sighs. ‘Well then. In we go.’

Yoseob barely keeps himself from doing a little happy dance the moment they open the front door. The place reeks of magic – he can feel the residual energy from his rose, can feel the faint imprint of Hyunseung’s presence from before his changing and. He can feel the people there. Who are all staring at them. Junhyung is staring back, brow furrowed and Yoseob bites back a grin – Junhyung might be a brilliant hunter, but magic is Yoseob’s thing.

‘Shifters,’ he says to Junhyung, but loud enough for the rest to hear, too. They would’ve heard even if he whispered, anyway. He tilts his head towards them. ‘Wolfs? You, though,’ he points to a guy huddled close to the fireplace, ‘You are more magical than the others. I suppose you helped Hyunseung?’ The other guys in the room immediately crowd the first one and their eyes flash red. Yoseob sighs, ‘I wasn’t… Nevermind. Who’s your leader?’

A guy with coppery red hair takes a step forwards and Yoseob briefly imagines his wolf form. It’s probably beautiful.

‘That would be me,’ he says, voice even.

‘I’m sorry,’ Yoseob bows, ‘my name is Yoseob, and this is Junhyung. I meant no disrespect earlier and we mean no harm. We were- we are Hyunseung’s family, of sorts, and we need to find him because he took something he shouldn’t have when he left us and we need to get it back.’

The guy who proclaimed himself leader sighs. ‘I’m Jaebum. And you’re the second person who comes here looking for this Hyunseung of yours.’ He eyes Junhyung and cringes. ‘Second and third?’

‘At least these two are more polite? Sort of?’ The magical guy says from behind his whole… pack? Are they even a pack?

There’s an awkward silence after that, the shifters staring at them warily, and it’s, surprisingly, broken by Junhyung. He starts laughing, quietly at first, then rising in volume until he’s clutching at his stomach with one hand and squeezing Yoseob’s shoulder with the other. Everyone, including Yoseob, stares at him. Finally, his laughter dies down, he wipes his eyes, and says ‘This is all bullshit. Like, this entire situation is ridiculous.’ The shifter that was behind the counter when they entered returns there, a grin slowly spreading on his face.

‘Great, now that we’ve established that. Drinks, anyone?’

Later, when they’ve talked to Youngjae, the magical shifter – apparently his mom was a witch – they learn all about Hyunseung’s visit and this guy Jonghyun’s visit, too. Technically now this Jonghyun is their target, but Jonghyun is after Hyunseung, so the mission remains mostly the same. Yoseob tries not to worry too much about his rose, since there’s not much they can do at this moment. He tries to follow its energy anyway, but the human world is cluttered with life threads and energy and it’s damn near impossible.

They are currently in the room a shifter named Jinyoung showed them to. They are both pretending to sleep, and both wide awake, each on his respective bed.

‘I’m sorry. About earlier.’ Junhyung says quietly. ‘I know your skills are important too, I just… I don’t like this, any of this, and sometimes I wish Doojoon would move time back to when he was home and wanted to be home and would just freeze us there. We were happy. And then I see you with Kikwang and Doojoon with Dongwoon, and I can see you miss him too, but… you have each other. All I have are the flowers I used to put in his hair.’

‘And then Hyunseung went and fucked it up all over again.’ Yoseob turns to face him in the darkness. In daylight you can’t really tell them apart from normal humans, but now that it’s pitch dark, there’s a faint glow surrounding Junhyung’s entire body. Yoseob knows he’s glowing too. He wonders if Hyunseung still is.

‘You have us too, you know.’ Yoseob speaks again, after the silence goes on for too long. ‘We might not be him, but we’re here for you.’ He sees Junhyung’s form shift, so now they’re both facing each other.

‘I know,’ he murmurs and Yoseob can feel the worry in his chest ease up. They can deal with this. They _will_ deal with this.

‘So,’ he starts ‘We’re going to work together from now? Team work, yeah?’

‘Yeah.’

*

With Bambam’s description of Yugyeom, Jonghyun expected waves and constant thunder and chaos but. The lake, as well as the surrounding part of the forest, is quiet. It’s also warm, despite the snow and there are trees that Jonghyun’s pretty sure should not be green in winter. He tries to put together what he sees before him with the image of the angry, human-eating monster Bambam described. It’s weird.

He takes out the jar containing the fish out of his back and opens it. He takes the fish out by the tail and it immediately starts wiggling in his fingers. Jonghyun swallows the bile rising in his throat, closes his eyes, imagines Minki’s smile whenever he comes home from one of his longer heists and swallows the fish whole.

It’s still wiggling while it goes down his throat and Jonghyun’s sure this time he’s going to throw up, but as he doubles over the fish just… dissolves in him. It’s moving disgustingly inside him one second and the next he feels lighter, somehow.  He straightens up, takes a cautious step into the water and it feels _right_.  The water is even warmer than the weather and it’s good to know Jonghyun’s not going to die of hypothermia before he even reaches Yugyeom’s dwelling. Jonghyun takes a deep breath he probably doesn’t need and walks forward.

The moment he’s far enough into the lake that the water reaches above his head, Jonghyun can hear a faint echo of a song all over the place. He follows the sound deeper into the lake, until he sees a garden that he’s pretty sure shouldn’t be able to exist underwater. It looks just like a regular garden, rows of flowers and herbs and even some trees. Except regular gardens don’t have brightly colored fish swimming around the flowers. There’s a cluster of cherry trees between Jonghyun and the garden and he hides behind one of them. There is a guy with a flower basket in the garden, walking along a row of petunias and picking some of them. This should be Yugyeom, there’s no one else it could be, but if the green trees above clashed with the image of a man-eating beast, the garden and the flowers make Jonghyun seriously doubt Bambam’s knowledge of this person. Still, Jonghyun’s cautious enough not to let himself be seen as takes a look around. There’s a path lined with more flowers nearby that probably leads to the wizard’s house. Jonghyun considers waiting in the trees until the coast is clear, but Yugyeom’s presence here means he’s not home, which would make the task of going through his stuff a tad bit easier. If only Jonghyun could figure out a way to bypass the garden without Yugyeom seeing him. The wizard seems very focused on his petunias and Jonghyun decides, to hell with it, and takes a careful step towards the path.

A few things happen the moment Jonghyun steps on the path. He collides with something invisible and it _hurts_ , Yugyeom’s song stops abruptly and there are hands catching Jonghyun before his head hits the stone path. And then it all goes black.

Jonghyun wakes up an unidentified amount of time later, on a couch, with a wet towel on his forehead and regular air, not water, surrounding him. He takes a look around and – he’s in a glass house. He can see fish swimming outside the walls and if he squints enough, he can almost see the outer rows of the garden from earlier. Speaking of the garden, Yugyeom is next to him, looking very confused and holding a teacup for Jonghyun to take. Jonghyun swallows nervously.

‘You should drink this,’ Yugyeom says, bringing the cup closer to Jonghyun. It smells minty. ‘It will calm your heart rate and dissipate the residual magic faster. For future reference, wizards and witches usually have protection spells around their houses, you should consider this next time you decide to break into one. Why were you trying to break into my house anyway?’

‘Um.’ Jonghyun answers eloquently. He takes the teacup cautiously. ‘You’re not going to eat me, are you?’

Yugyeom looks horrified. Possibly disgusted. ‘Dude, I’m vegetarian! Why else would I take the time and energy to grow shit underwater?’

Jonghyun feels all the previous doubt morph into a sense of final, undeniable _wrongness_. ‘Uh, there’s this incubus, Bambam-’

‘Oh my God.’ Yugyeom interrupts. He gets up and throws his hands up in… exasperation? ‘I swear to God, one of these days I will charm his dick to shrivel up when he so much as _thinks_ about me. And then he’ll be the worst incubus in the history of ever because apparently he can’t stop thinking of ways to make my life hard.’

There’s wind picking up around Yugyeom and it’s starting to look a lot like a tiny, human-sized tornado. Jonghyun shrinks back into the couch.

Yugyeom seems to sense Jonghyun’s fear because he takes a few deep breaths and the tiny tornado calms down. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says, voice a lot calmer now. He shakes his head, ‘Bambam has a very twisted idea of courtship. I don’t even want to think about what he told you about me to make you think I’d eat you. I swear to God,’ he shakes his head again. ‘And it’s not like he can’t do it like normal people, too! I mean, did you know he made it his life goal to collect rare magical items just so he can give them to me later? I mean, I was convinced that first time he brought me stardust. And then he goes and does something like this.’ Yugyeom sighs. ‘Sometimes I really question my life choices.’

Jonghyun stares at him for a second. ‘He brought you stardust?’ When Yugyeom nods, Jonghyun tries really hard to imagine Bambam chasing fallen stars in the wastelands. It’s as hard as imagining Yugyeom eating people.

‘Anyway.’ Yugyeom says again, and his tone is a lot lighter now. ‘You must have had a reason to go to him?’

And then Jonghyun’s vision goes black for a second, because if Yugyeom isn’t a man-eating beast, then he probably doesn’t have marbles under his work table, and Bambam just sent him here for shits and giggles. And Minki is still at home, still with the fucking rose sticking out of his mouth and eating his insides for all Jonghyun knows. He feels a wave of helpless anger so strong, he doesn’t even realize his fingers have dug holes in the soft couch.

‘Whoa, whoa. Calm down, man. What happened?’ Yugyeom is trying for soothing now and it doesn’t really work, except when the fog of anger clears, Jonghyun remembers he’s in an actual wizard’s house. Maybe, just maybe, Yugyeom might actually be of help after all.

‘I don’t think I can do anything significant to help, sorry.’ Yugyeom says after Jonghyun finishes the epic tale of the stolen rose and the inn and Bambam, too (Yugyeom scowled a lot during that part). ‘What’s worse, I don’t think Hyunseung can help you either.’ He sounds genuinely sorry too, but it does very little to ease the lead that’s settled in Jonghyun’s stomach. ‘He was here, by the way, Bambam didn’t send you here just because. He just likes to… Do things the hard way, kind of. Anyway, as you’ve probably already guessed, Hyunseung isn’t really from here. And by here, I mean our realm. Where he’s from, there’s magic stronger than any spell I could ever cast, but it’s divided among different people. He stole someone else’s magic when he left, for whatever reason.’

‘No.’ Jonghyun says, his voice way steadier than he expected. He’s surprised by the steely determination settling in his gut. ‘You’re telling me I can’t do anything and I _refuse_ , okay? I will find this fucking Hyunseung and he will help me help Minki. I don’t give a fuck about his magic or his realm, but I’d go there too, if I have to. The love of my life is not going to go like this. We will grow old and ugly together and a stupid fucking magical rose is _not_ going to change that.’

Yugyeom is staring at him. It’s quite similar to the way Bambam stared at him after he tried and failed to seduce him, and the glance Jackson gave him before he tried to make him drink his weight in wine.

‘Okay,’ Yugyeom says after a few seconds. ‘I’ll draw you a map to help you find him.’

*

The meeting with Bambam the incubus went by relatively quick. Most of his underlings had enough magic in them to sense Yoseob and Junhyung’s superiority right away and had the common sense to back off. Despite the shifter’s warnings, Bambam, too, had enough common sense to not play tricks on them. They made a deal and Yoseob traded one of his precious flowers, properly contained, for information on Hyunseung and Jonghyun. Junhyung chuckled when Bambam told them about his meeting with Jonghyun, but Yoseob waited until they were a safe distance away to do the same.

Now they are in front of Yugyeom’s lake and Junhyung is sitting cross-legged on the ground while Yoseob walks along the shore, eyes on the ground, until he finds the right pebble. He whispers an incantation to it, then throws it in the water.

It takes a while, but there’s a ripple through the lake and what is probably Yugyeom emerges from it. He’s a lot taller than Yoseob expected. Yugyeom looks around and frowns at the snow covering the trees further from the lake before his gaze settles on Yoseob and Junhyung, now both sitting on the shore.

‘Hi,’ he smiles at them, ‘Sorry, but could we maybe move this to my home? I really hate the cold.’

Yoseob smiles back. ‘It’s okay; I don’t think we’ll take much of your time. We are looking for a man named Jonghyun.’

The wizard’s mouth falls open in a perfect o. And he immediately bows deep. ‘I’m sorry, the cold really distracts me. And, well,’ ha adds sheepishly ‘it’s not often I get to meet Guardians.’ Yoseob smiles again and Yugyeom seems to remember his question. ‘Oh, Jonghyun, he was just here. He left a few hours ago – he was after your friend,’ and after noticing Junhyung’s constipated expression, he hurries to add ‘but of course, you already know that. Hold on, I drew Jonghyun a map, I’ll make one for you as well.’

The kid is so incredibly nice Yoseob feels compelled to give him one of his flowers as thanks, but Junhyung catches his wrist before he can reach into his bag. ‘Don’t. I’m pretty sure the flower you left with the incubus will end up here.’

Yoseob eyes Yugyeom drawing the map a few feet away and tries to find some kind of clue in the threads surrounding them but nothing stands out. ‘You can tell that just by looking at the threads?’

Junhyung nods. ‘The incubus traded a butterfly off Hyunseung, I saw its trace there. I guess he took more than just your flower. Anyway, the butterfly’s thread ends in that lake, as well a few other distinctly magical ones that pass through the brothel and end here.’

Yugyeom waves the piece of paper in their direction and Yoseob sighs. ‘Let’s hit the road, then.’

*

The map is enchanted to mark Jonghyun’s progress with a glowing purple circle. Hyunseung’s supposed whereabouts are a huge red cross. Jonghyun feels like a pirate.

He feels even more like a pirate when he realizes the map leads to the ocean. He always imagined the first time he’d see the ocean would be during the summer and with Minki by his side, and he feels an odd sense of betrayal. At least the ocean is pretty bleak during the winter – it doesn’t snow here, but it’s still cold – colder than the snowed in forest, too, what with the ocean so close and all.

The first thing he sees when he nears the water are three figures – there’s a young guy with a guitar in his lap, singing softly and another guy leaning against the first one’s knees, his lower half in the water. The third figure seems fast asleep (or possibly dead) a little further down the beach. When he gets even closer, he sees that the guy half in the water has actually a fishtail instead of legs. It’s twitching every so often in the water. A siren.

A lot of things are weird about this situation, but the weirdest of them all is that Jonghyun doesn’t feel even a shred of fear.

The guy with the guitar stops singing when Jonghyun gets within earshot. The siren tilts his head up to him, and when guitar guy points at Jonghyun the siren props himself on guitar guy’s knees and turns around to face Jonghyun. His eyes, much like Bambam’s, are irisless, pupil-less. Burt where Bambam’s are ghostly, glowing white, the siren’s are a muddy blue. Jonghyun imagines that’s what the ocean looks like during a storm.

‘Hello,’ guitar guy says and his voice is surprisingly deep. ‘I’m Seungyun, and this is Sam. What brings you out here? It’s not often that we get human visitors. And in this weather, too.’

‘Um,’ Jonghyun hesitates. This is the first magical encounter he’s had that the creatures are actually _polite_ – not eyeing him warily, not trying to scare him into doing their bidding and not pitying his apparently easy-to-fool human nature. After a second’s consideration, he bows. ‘My name is Jonghyun and I’m looking for someone named Hyunseung. A wizard a bit further into the forest drew me a map to his location and it ends here?’

The siren – Sam – blinks at him. ‘What’s your business with him?’

It sounds curious more than anything, and, what’s important, it doesn’t sound like that’s the first time the pair has heard the name. Jonghyun breathes a sigh of relief. Every fiber of his being is ready for this to be over.

‘I stole something from him, it backfired, now I want to give it back and possibly save my husband.’ It’s very similar to what he told Jackson and the others in the inn, the first time he had to explain it, and somehow it feels like a closure.

Seungyun smiles at him and points to the guy passed out a few feet away from them. ‘There he is.’

‘Good luck waking him up, though.’ Sam adds, ‘We tried for like a solid three hours. I even tried a siren song on him – he doesn’t budge.’

‘Well, I’m nothing if not determined.’ Jonghyun states, already taking out Bambam’s magical jar out of his bag and heading for the water. Sam chuckles.

*

They reach the ocean just as the sun is setting. It’s beautiful. There are figures on the beach, one lying in the sand and another frantically shaking it. Junhyung stops dead in his tracks.

‘Yoseob,’ he starts shakily, clutching at Yoseob’s arm. ‘It’s him. It’s him. Oh Lord, it’s him.’

They powerwalk the rest of the way to the two people. The one shaking Hyunseung is probably Jonghyun, and Yoseob finds himself a little amused, despite everything. When Hyunseung decides to sleep, it’s damn near impossible to wake him up forcibly. Well, unless you are a Junhyung.

‘Move.’ Junhyung barks and Jonghyun looks almost offended and possibly near tears, until Yoseob tugs him away from Hyunseung’s body with a comforting smile. Junhyung crouches next to Hyunseung with gentleness that Yoseob thought was lost forever, ever since Junhyung took residence on the stupid bench. He pushes Hyunseung’s hair aside and Jonghyun has probably tried splashing him with water at some point because some of his bangs have frost on them. Junhyung cups his cheeks, leans in and carefully kisses him.

The reaction is instantaneous – first Hyunseung’s eyes flutter open, then he promptly closes them again and buries his hands in Junhyung’s hair.

‘Uh.’ Jonghyun says beside Yoseob. ‘I don’t know if I could do that.’

‘It wouldn’t have worked if you did it, anyway.’ Yoseob says with a sigh. The weirdest part is all of his earlier anger towards Hyunseung has disappeared and now all he wants to see Hyunseung, too, but they have more pressing matters at hand. And from the looks of it, the lovebirds could probably use a little privacy anyway. ‘Hey, let’s leave them, yeah? Hyunseung can’t help your husband anyway. It’s me you need – I’m the flowers’ Guardian. Are you okay with leaving right now? We could take breaks along the road and the magical creatures are sort of intimidated by me, so you’ll be safe, too.’

It says a lot about the past few days that Jonghyun doesn’t even flinch, just drags Yoseob back to the woods.

*

‘You know, I always figured if someone left, that would be me.’ Junhyung says, running his fingers through Hyunseung’s hair. They are snuggled together against one of the outer trees, where the forest ends and the beach begins. It’s cold, but human temperatures don’t have the same effect on creatures like them.

‘I didn’t,’ Hyunseung mutters in his neck. ‘You’ve always been too devoted to your place in this… to us. To me. But I guess I fucked up that part, didn’t I?’

‘You did.’

‘It’s just, it used to feel so right, so _me_. Until it didn’t.’ Hyunseung snuggles further to him. ‘I tried to stay, I swear I did, but at some point it just… didn’t matter anymore. I didn’t care about the butterflies, I didn’t care about being a Guardian. To be honest, the only thing I regret about any of it is losing you five. Losing you.’ They are quiet for a while, then Hyunseung breaks the silence again. ‘You know, I was planning on fixing the rose situation. Or at least try to. Did you know there is a Guardian somewhere in the wastelands? I’m not sure what of, exactly, but this nymph, Seungyun, told me his name is Taemin and he’s been around for a while and that he grows flowers like Yoseob’s and I was planning on going to him to ask for help. But then I just – well, I got drunk with Seungyun and his siren boyfriend and now here we are. I suck at this.’

‘Yeah,’ Junhyung sighs. ‘Yeah, you do. Why did you take the rose anyway?’

‘To remind me of you.’ Hyunseung mumbles against his neck.

‘Speaking of,’ Junhyung says, reaching for his bag, ‘We brought a few of your butterflies with us.’ He doesn’t wait for an answer before he releases the butterflies out of his bag. They fly around for a bit, circling Hyunseung’s head, before they land on Junhyung’s hair. They stay there and Hyunseung sends him a sad smile. It feels more like a chapter closed than the day Hyunseung left ever did.

It still doesn’t feel right. It probably will, but right now the rose situation is mostly under control – there’s nothing more they can do, at least, and they still have some time before Junhyung has to follow Yoseob’s thread and take him home. He runs his fingers through Hyunseung’s hair again.

*

Things unravel relatively anticlimactic after that.

Jonghyun is tired but he refuses to take more than a half an hour break. Now that Minki – annoying and alive Minki is not a possibility but a certainty, he just can’t bring himself to waste time more than strictly necessary. They’ve walked through the night and well into the afternoon now and they’ve just passed Bambam’s brothel and Jonghyun had only barely suppressed the urge to throw something at it just because.

At this rate, they’ll reach Jackson’s inn somewhere around midnight and this time Yoseob makes him promise they’ll at least spend the night there, or whatever is left of it, when they arrive. It ends up being a total of five hours before Jonghyun shakes Yoseob awake at the crack of dawn.

When they arrive home Minhyun isn’t there, but there’s a half-empty cup of lukewarm tea on the windowsill. The rose has turned pink around the edges and Yoseob makes a little disgusted noise as he cups it and whispers some sort of incantation. He lifts it gently and this time it gives, lifting from Minki’s mouth. The stem has split in three and it’s long enough that Jonghyun gags at the thought of it being lodged in Minki’s throat for so long. The rose sort of wraps itself around Yoseob’s arm and he smiles at it, still whispering, until it changes its color to the original blue. Minki is still unconscious, but he looks like he’s sleeping now, rather than being eaten alive by a plant.

When Minhyun returns a few hours later Yoseob and Jonghyun are in the kitchen, enjoying cups of coffee that took three tries to not look (and smell) poisonous.

Yoseob smiles at him. ‘I take it you’re the one that put the preservation spells on Minki?’ He waits for Minhyun to nod before he continues. ‘They are quite nice, even if your spell work is a bit sloppy. Have you ever thought about apprenticeship with a wizard?’

Minhyun actually blushes and Jonghyun just stares at him because calm and collected Minhyun does not blush.

‘I, uh, already have an apprenticeship? With a doctor?’

‘Oh, but that’s okay. You can finish that and start another one with a wizard. You have the potential for it. In fact, your medical background would probably help a lot. There was this wizard west from here, what was his name-‘ Yoseob scratches his chin absentmindedly, ‘Kang Dongho I believe? I used to teach him stuff back when I visited this realm more often. He’s kind of weird, but he’s a great wizard. You could go to him, if you wish, tell him I sent you.’

Minhyun just nods mutely, eyes wide, and goes to make himself a cup of coffee as well.

*

A few days later Minki is already up and about, waving wooden spoons and chasing people out of quote unquote his kitchen, despite both Yoseob and Minhyun’s insistence that he should rest.

That’s when Junhyung and Hyunseung finally arrive. It’s very awkward on both Yoseob and Hyunseung’s parts, until Junhyung finally sighs, and drags both of them towards each other. The hug is even more awkward, but Yoseob smiles in it anyway.

There’s a portal waiting for them when they go out and it’s every bit as cheesy as every adventure story ever’s ending, Minhyun, Minki and Jonghyun waving at them from the front door and Hyunseung smiling somewhat sadly a few feet from them. Junhyung looks sad too, but considerably better than when they started this and that’s saying a lot. Yoseob can’t wait to put his rose back in the garden, hug Kikwang and tell him all about the weird magical creatures he met, even though Kikwang probably knows all about them already.

The portal smells like spring.

*

‘I can’t believe you went to the ocean without me.’ Minki waves his spoon threateningly. Jonghyun ducks behind the door to the living room in case Minki decides he’s annoyed enough to actually throw it at him. Wooden spoons hurt, okay?

‘I tell you about my epic adventure of creepy, mischievous, magical creatures that could have potentially killed me and _that’s_ what you decide to pick up on?’

‘Oh come on,’ Minki puts the spoon back on the table and goes for setting it for dinner, so Jonghyun decides it’s safe enough to go back inside. ‘It sounds like you were never in actual danger.’

‘But I didn’t know that at the time! A little sympathy, please?’ Jonghyun gives his best pout, which probably looks ridiculous, but Minki’s eyes soften anyway. He plants a quick peck on Jonghyun’s lips and turns back to dinner.


End file.
